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Mr. Trump’s Bad Two-for-One Deal

President Trump surrounded by small business leaders before signing an executive order on federal regulations.Credit
Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

President Trump’s two-for-one deal — an executive order requiring federal agencies to eliminate at least two regulations for every new one issued — sounds more like a fast-food ad than a plan for governing.

There are sound ways to streamline regulations, but boxing in regulators this way is neither advisable nor necessary. Since 2011, federal agencies have been systematically reviewing rules on the books, under a governmentwide effort begun by President Barack Obama to revise and eliminate duplicative or outdated rules and to identify regulatory gaps where new rules are needed. The “look-back” program — which brought net savings of some $37 billion over five years — makes Mr. Trump’s order all the more worrisome, because many unneeded rules have already been purged. Regulations that are necessary to protect the public, including environmental rules that safeguard health, are now at risk.

For example, the Environmental Protection Agency would have to repeal limitations on some pollutants — mercury, perhaps — in order to impose new regulations, like the updated limits on lead in drinking water that are on the agency’s agenda this year. The nation’s environmental laws do not instruct the E.P.A. to make such trade-offs, but, in effect, the executive order does. Similarly, Congress never told the Food and Drug Administration to choose among food-label accuracy, drug safety and the purity of cosmetics in carrying out the nation’s product safety laws. Mr. Trump’s executive order would force the agency to make such choices.

The order’s heavy-handedness puts environmentalists and consumer advocates on solid ground to argue in court that the two-for-one repeal formula is arbitrary and capricious, and thus illegal. But as long as the order is in force, rulemaking — a basic function of governance — will be greatly impaired.

Mr. Trump has said that the order will reduce out-of-control regulatory burdens. But as part of the look-back program, the Obama administration successfully prodded some federal agencies to make automatic review of regulations a standard practice. For instance, the E.P.A. and the Transportation Department have committed to review recent rules on fuel economy and emissions standards for light trucks in the coming years. Similarly, speed limits on large ships, renewed in 2013 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to reduce collisions with endangered whales, will be re-evaluated within five years and modified or repealed as needed.